NorthForge Heavy Equipment Rebuilders: A FireFlight Success Story

NorthForge Heavy Equipment Rebuilders never set out to become a “data management” company.
They wanted to be the best regional shop for bringing heavy machinery back from the dead—cranes, excavators, loaders, and mining trucks that most people had already written off.

For years, their promise was simple: take exhausted equipment, rebuild it from the ground up, and send it back to the field with more reliability and more life.
But as projects grew in size, complexity, and financial risk, that promise started to rely on something they didn’t really have: real visibility into project costs, spare parts, and the lifecycle of every asset.

FireFlight gave them exactly that—a way to master their margins on every repair and refurb, without losing focus on the work happening on the shop floor.

Who NorthForge Is

Based in Billings, Montana, NorthForge Heavy Equipment Rebuilders specializes in the refurbishment and rebuild of:

Large excavators

All-terrain and rough-terrain cranes

Front loaders and haul trucks used in mining and heavy construction

Their model combines:

A central rebuild shop equipped for full teardown, machining, structural welding, and final assembly

A field service team that travels to mines, quarries, and large infrastructure projects for diagnostics, partial repairs, and post-delivery support

Every project is unique. Some customers buy a used machine cheaply and ask for a full “like-new” refurb. Others want a focused repair on undercarriage, hydraulic systems, or structural components—but demand clear warranty terms, full parts traceability, and a transparent total cost of ownership (TCO).

On paper, NorthForge was selling expertise and precision.
In reality, a lot of their operation lived on whiteboards, spreadsheets, paper notes, and forwarded email threads.

The Pain Before FireFlight

NorthForge’s real challenge was never technical. Their mechanics knew how to strip and rebuild an excavator down to the last bolt.
The problem was everything around the physical work.

Unknown BOMs Until Teardown

Every refurb used to start with an estimate based on photos, partial history, and a surface inspection.

But the real Bill of Materials (BOM)—what needed replacing, what could be reconditioned, which “hidden” components were failing—only became clear during teardown.

That meant:

The original quote was built on assumptions

Scope changes were constant

No one had a structured record of how many hours and parts went into particular failure modes or machine types

Parts and Spares All Over the Place

NorthForge carried a substantial inventory of reconditioned hydraulic pumps, cylinders, axles, seal kits, critical hardware, and electronic components.

But the true picture of stock lived inside:

A basic shelf-based inventory system

The memory of the warehouse manager

Several spreadsheets

When a large refurb project hit the floor, it was common to discover:

Incomplete kits halfway through reassembly

Last-minute emergency purchases at high prices just to meet a delivery date

Parts “verbally reserved” for a different project

Project Costs That Didn’t Add Up

From management’s perspective, the most serious issue was the lack of project-level financial visibility.

Technician hours were recorded on paper or via informal messages

Many parts were pulled from stock with no clear link to a specific project

Rework and adjustments often went unrecorded

The result: some projects looked profitable on the invoice, but quietly destroyed margin in practice.
Others looked “expensive” to the customer, but were actually NorthForge’s healthiest jobs when viewed through true TCO and lifecycle value.

Leadership knew they needed more than an accounting system.
They needed a way to see, in real time, how every refurb was performing in terms of cost, inventory, and asset lifecycle.

FireFlight Steps In: Building a System Around Refurb

NorthForge chose FireFlight with a clear goal:

Stop “surviving” job by job and start running their refurb portfolio as a data-driven business, where every decision rests on real information.

Together with the FireFlight team, they rebuilt their operation around three pillars:

1. True job costing at the project level, not just by month

2. Inventory control centered on critical spare parts

3. Asset Management (EAM) to track lifecycle and TCO over time

How FireFlight Works Inside NorthForge

1. Intake and Evaluation: From “Rough Guess” to Traceable Scope

Every project now begins in FireFlight as a Project Work Order tied to a specific asset:

The machine’s serial number, known history, operating hours, site conditions, and reported failure modes are all registered

Sales and operations define an initial scope with likely components to be addressed and an estimated cost range

That Project Work Order is linked to:

The customer

And the asset’s EAM record inside FireFlight

The sites where the machine operates

The impact is immediate: from day one there is a single container for everything that follows—notes, photos, decisions, approvals, and costs.

2. Guided Teardown and a Dynamic BOM

When the machine hits the shop, teardown stops being just a technical process and becomes a structured, digital workflow.

Each subsystem (undercarriage, engine, hydraulics, structure, electrics) has defined steps inside FireFlight

Technicians log findings, upload photos, and mark components as “reuse,” “recondition,” or “replace”

As teardown progresses:

The dynamic BOM for the project is built directly in FireFlight

Replacement decisions trigger inventory reservations or purchase requisitions, all tied back to the Project Work Order

The old “mystery BOM” that only existed in the shop supervisor’s head disappears.

3. Spare Parts Inventory Under Control

With FireFlight, NorthForge’s inventory stopped being just a physical storeroom and became a live system connected to real work.

Every component—from major assemblies down to seal kits—is cataloged with alternates, preferred vendors, and lead times

All stock movements (issues, returns, transfers between zones) are recorded against a specific project and asset

When a BOM is confirmed for a project, FireFlight checks what’s on hand, what’s already reserved, and what needs to be ordered

The result is twofold:

Far fewer surprises mid-assembly

A growing historical dataset on which parts are used most, in which repairs, and with what margin impact

4. Real-Time Job Costing and Project Financials

The biggest visible change for management came from FireFlight’s Project Financial Dashboard:

Technician hours are logged directly to each project and, when relevant, to specific sub-tasks (e.g., “cylinder rebuild,” “structural weld repair,” “hydraulic testing”)

Outside services (special machining, lab testing, transport) flow from Accounts Payable into the Project Work Order

Parts leave inventory with actual cost and are attached to the same project

On the project financial screen, leadership can see:

Material cost vs. plan

Projected margin vs. original quote

Estimated vs. actual technician hours

Approved scope changes and their impact

This moved NorthForge from “waiting for month-end” to monitoring the financial health of every refurb while it’s still in progress.

5. Asset Lifecycle and Total Cost of Ownership

The most strategic change came from FireFlight’s Asset Lifecycle & Depreciation capabilities.

Each refurbished asset:

Carries a full history of interventions

Reflects cumulative cost over time, not just on a single project

Aggregates all installed parts, with dates, warranties, and costs

When a customer asks:

“Is another refurb worth it, or is it time to buy a new machine?”

NorthForge no longer answers “it depends, let me check.”

They open FireFlight and show:

How much has been invested in that specific asset

How its TCO compares to the cost of a replacement machine

How many operating hours were gained with each refurb

That turns NorthForge into more than a shop. It makes them a strategic advisor for fleet decisions.

What Changed With FireFlight

In less than a year with FireFlight, NorthForge’s operation felt different—from the shop floor to the boardroom.

On the shop floor:

Technicians still focus on what they do best, but every step now leaves a digital trail that can be analyzed later

Conversations shifted from “who grabbed this cylinder?” to “why does this type of repair consistently overrun estimated hours?”

In admin and finance:

Margin-eating projects no longer hide inside monthly averages

Clear patterns emerged: which brands, models, years, and operating conditions tend to erode margin—and how pricing and scope should be adjusted on the next quote

In customer relationships:

NorthForge can explain exactly why a refurb costs what it does, with a level of detail that builds trust: teardown findings, decisions made, installed parts, and test results

Some customers even use FireFlight’s reports internally to justify refurb investment versus buying new

In strategy:

Leadership sees the project portfolio as a true pipeline of investments and returns, not just a queue of jobs

They can decide which types of work to prioritize, which service lines to expand, and where FireFlight reveals clear opportunities for better margin

“Master Your Margins on Every Repair and Refurb”

NorthForge’s story isn’t just about becoming “more digital.”
It’s about something far more concrete:

Stop guessing margins, start controlling them

Turn a process full of uncertainty (unknown BOMs, scattered spares, poorly tracked hours) into a traceable flow of decisions, costs, and outcomes

FireFlight didn’t change who NorthForge is.
It gave them a system where their technical expertise and operational discipline finally show up where it matters most: healthy margins, returning customers, and heavy equipment that keeps working for many more years.

It’s like having an assistant who never sleeps, constantly keeping us organized and ahead of schedule.

We’re not just managing drones anymore we’re flying smarter, faster, and more efficiently than ever.

The names of this company has been changed to protect their information, and each scenario represents a practical use case of FireFlight.